Brad Ideas - deliverbotshttp://ideas.4brad.com/taxonomy/term/90/0
enRobodelivery and high-end, low-usage equipment rental (and NPR interview)http://ideas.4brad.com/robodelivery-and-high-end-low-usage-equipment-rental-and-npr-interview
<p>Earlier on, I identified robot delivery vehicles as one of the steps on the roadmap to robot cars. In fact, these are officially what the DARPA grand challenges really seek, since the military wants robots that can move things through danger zones without putting soldiers at risk.</p>
<p>Deliverbots may well be allowed on the road before fully automated robotaxis for humans because there are fewer safety issues. Deliverbots can go more slowly, as most cargo is not super-urgent. If they go slower, and have a low weight limit, it may be the case that they can&#8217;t cause much harm if they go astray. Obviously if a deliverbot crashes into an inanimate object, it just cost money and doesn&#8217;t injure people. The deliverbot might be programmed to be extra-cautious and slow around anything like a person. As such, it might be allowed on the road sooner.</p>
<p>I gave a talk on Robot cars at the <a href="http://www.bilconference.com">BIL conference</a>, and an attendee came up to suggest the deliverbots enable a new type of equipment rental. Because they can bring you rental equipment quickly, cheaply and with no hassle, they make renting vastly more efficient and convenient. People will end up renting things they would never consider renting today. Nowadays you only rent things you really need which are too expensive or bulky to own.</p>
<p>By the way, the new NPR morning show the &#8220;Bryant Park Project&#8221; decided to interview a pair of speakers, one from TED and one from BIL, so I talked about my robot cars talk. You can <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87878033">listen to the segment</a> or follow links to hear the whole show.</p>
<p>It was suggested even something as simple as a vacuum cleaner could become a rental item. Instead of buying a $200 vacuum to clean your floors once a week, you might well rent a super-high quality $2,000 unit which comes to you with short notice via deliverbot. This would also be how you might treat all sorts of specialized, bulky or expensive tools. Few will keep their own lathe, band saw or laser engraver, but if you can get one in 10 minutes, you would never need to.</p>
<p>(Here in silicon valley, an outfit called <a href="http://techshop.ws">Tech Shop</a> offers a shop filled with all the tools and toys builders like, for a membership fee and materials cost. It&#8217;s great for those who are close to it or want to trek there, but this could be better. This in turn would also let us make better use of the space in our homes, not storing things we don&#8217;t really need to have.</p>
http://ideas.4brad.com/robodelivery-and-high-end-low-usage-equipment-rental-and-npr-interview#commentsRobocarsdeliverbotsself-driving carsWed, 05 Mar 2008 23:46:24 -0800brad727 at http://ideas.4brad.comIs robot delivery on the roadmap for self-driving cars?http://ideas.4brad.com/robot-delivery-roadmap-self-driving-cars
<p>Last week I talked briefly about self-driving delivery vehicles. I&#8217;ve become interested in what I&#8217;ll call the &#8220;roadmap&#8221; (pun intended) for the adoption of self-driving cars. Just how do we get there from here, taking the technology as a given? I&#8217;ve seen and thought of many proposals, and been ignoring the one that should stare us in the face &#8212; delivery. I say that because this is the application the DARPA grand challenge is actually aimed at. They want to move cargo without risks to soldiers. We mostly think of that as a path to the tech that will move people, but it may be the pathway.</p>
<p>Robot delivery vehicles have one giant advantage. They don&#8217;t have to be designed for passenger safety, and you don&#8217;t have to worry about that when trying to convince people to let them on the road. They also don&#8217;t care nearly as much about how fast they get there. Instead what we care about is whether they might hit people, cars or things, or get in the way of cars. If they hit things or hurt their cargo, that&#8217;s usually just an insurance matter. In fact, in most cases even if they hit cars, or cars hit them, that will just be an insurance matter.</p>
<p>A non-military cargo robot can be light and simple. It doesn&#8217;t need crumple zones or airbags. It might look more like a small electric trike, on bicycle wheels. (Indeed, the Blue Team has put a focus on making it work on 2 wheels, which could be even better.) It would be electric (able to drive itself to charging stations as needed) and mechanically, very cheap.</p>
<p>The first step will be to convince people they can&#8217;t hit pedestrians. To do that, the creators will need to make an urban test track and fill it with swarms of the robots, and demonstrate that they can walk out into the swarm with no danger. Indeed, like a school of fish, it should be close to impossible to touch one even if you <em>try</em>. Likewise, skeptics should be able to get onto bicycles, motorcycles, cars and hummers and drive right through the schools of robots, unable to hit one if they try. After doing that for half an hour and getting tired, doubters will be ready to accept them on the roads. <span class='read-more'><a href="http://ideas.4brad.com/robot-delivery-roadmap-self-driving-cars">&nbsp;read&nbsp;more&nbsp;&raquo;</a></span></p>
http://ideas.4brad.com/robot-delivery-roadmap-self-driving-cars#commentsRobocarsdeliverbotsself-driving carsMon, 25 Jun 2007 13:41:10 -0700brad622 at http://ideas.4brad.com